An ancient cemetery with more than 300 tombs of mummies has been unearthed in Egypt in a discovery that scientists have since dubbed the “City of the ᴅᴇᴀᴅ.”
Archaeologists have spent five years digging at a site once located on the hill near the modern Mausoleum of Aga Khan III. The burial grounds reportedly span 270,000 feet and with tombs ascending up to 10 terraces.
More recently, a team of international researchers uncovered 36 new tombs at the site which they estimated had been in use for some 900 years, between the 6th century BC and 9th century AD, with each tomb containing the remains of 30 to 40 people.
According to Ayman Ashmawy, who heads the Supreme Council of Antiquities’ Egyptian Antiquities Division, 30-40% of the remains belonged to infants and adolescents, many of whom died of infectious diseases and other life-threatening disorders, including anemia, tuberculosis and diseased organs.
Patrizia Piacentini, an archaeologist at the University of Milan, is leading a team of researchers to discover more about the ancient city of Aswan, once an important trade hub, granite quarry and military post on the east bank of the Nile River, founded around 4,500 years ago.
“This was a really spectacular find, very unique in Egypt,” Piacentini told the Daily Mail in a statement. [The people of Aswan] covered the hill with tombs. It is kind of a City of the ᴅᴇᴀᴅ.”
The city now known as Aswan was first dubbed Swenett, and later called Swan — a name that translates to “market” — as the commercial center saw travelers and settlers from the far reaches of Africa and Europe.
“Aswan was a crossing point since forever,” said Piacentini. “People were coming from the east to the west. People came here because it was the border, products from the south arrived in Aswan and then dispersed everywhere else.”
